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Titus Livius or Livy
Roman historian, author of the authorized version of the history of the Roman
republic.
Life
The life of Titus Livius (or Livy, to use his more common English
name), is not well known. Almost everything we know about the author of the voluminous
History of Rome from its foundation is derived from a handful of anecdotes recorded
by later authors, who may have found them in a (now lost) book by the Roman biographer
Suetonius called Historians and philosophers. Nevertheless, we know something
about Livy's life, and that is more than we can say about several other important
ancient authors (e.g., Homer).
The Christian author Jerome, an excellent chronographer, states that
Livy was born in 59 BCE and died in 17 CE. There is no evidence to contradict
this piece of information. It makes Livy a near contemporary of the Roman politician
Octavian, who was born in 63, became sole ruler of the Roman empire in 31, accepted
the surname Augustus in 27, and died in 14 CE.
That Livy was born in Patavium (modern Padua)
is clear from Quintilian, the author of a nice book on the education of orators,
who recorded that Livy never lost his Patavian accent.
We know nothing about his parents. Several inscriptions from Padua
mention members of the Livius family, but none of them can convincingly be connected
to the historian. However, we can be confident that he belonged to the provincial
elite and that his family, although not very rich, had enough money to send him
to competent teachers. On the other hand, Livy's difficulties with the Greek language
make it clear that he did not enjoy higher education in, say, Athens,
which a Roman boy from the richest families certainly would have visited. The
History of Rome from its foundation offers no indication that he ever traveled
to Greece.
Padua belonged to a province of the Roman empire that was known as
Gallia Cisalpina. During Livy's youth, its governor was Julius Caesar, and it
is likely that the boy often heard stories about the wars in Gaul. However, he
never got used to military matters. His writings betray that he knew next to nothing
about warfare. This, and his lack of political experience, would normally have
disqualified Livy as a historian, but as we will see, he was able to write a very
acceptable history.
When he was about ten years old, civil war broke out between Caesar
and Pompey the Great. It was decided in 48 during the battle of Pharsalus. Later,
Livy recalled a miraculous incident. His own description is not known, but a century
later, the Greek author Plutarch of Chaeronea
retold the story:
At Patavium, there was a well-known prophet called Caius Cornelius, who was
a fellow-citizen and acquaintance of Livy the historian. On the day of the battle
this man happened to be sitting at his prophetic work and first, according to
Livy, he realized that the battle was taking place at that very moment and said
to those who were present that now was the time when matters were being decided
and now the troops were going into action; then he had a second look and, when
he had examined the signs, he jumped up in a kind of ecstasy and cried out: 'Caesar,
the victory is yours!' Those who were standing by were amazed at him, but he took
the garland from his head and solemnly swore that he would not wear it again until
facts had proved that his arts had revealed the truth to him. Livy, certainly,
is most emphatic that this really happened. [Plutarch, Life of Caesar 47; tr.
R.Warner]
There is another story about his youth. The Roman philosopher Seneca
tells that when Livy was a young man, he wrote philosophical essays. It may be
true, although Livy's writings do not betray a profoundly philosophical mind.
However this may be, anecdotes like these give us the impression that the future
historian was a serious young man, and this is also the impression one gets from
his writings. He lacks irony and humor. On the other hand, he shows a great understanding
of human psychology and has great sympathy with suffering people. We may find
his gravity and earnestness a bit hard to stomach, but Livy had a heart.
After the violent death of Julius Caesar, a new round of civil war
followed. Padua played a minor role and it is possible that the young Livy witnessed
some of the fighting in 44/43. In 31, Caesar's adopted son Octavian was victorious,
and many people had a feeling that now, after eighteen years of fratricide, the
situation in Italy would normalize. Academic studies were resumed. The poet Virgil
wrote his optimistic Georgics and Greek authors like Dionysius of Halicarnassus
and Strabo of Amasia came
to the capital. Livy seems to have shared in this mood, and published the first
five books of his History of Rome from its foundation between 27 and 25.
By now, he was in his early thirties. We don't know anything about
Livy's private life, but an average Roman man would at this age be married and
have children. Quintilian states that the historian had a son, for whom he wrote
a treatise on style, and a daughter, who was married to a teacher of oratory named
Lucius Magius. Pliny the Elder quotes a geographical work written by a son of
Livy.
The History of Rome from its foundation was meant as an example
to the Romans. They had suffered, but that had been due to their own, immoral
behavior. However, a moral revival was still possible, and Livy offered some uplifting
and cautionary tales. It was a serious and important project, and Augustus was
interested in it. Livy did not belong to the inner circle of Rome's first emperor,
nor was he a protege of Maecenas, but the historian and the emperor respected
each other and we know that Augustus once (perhaps after the publication of Books
91-105) made a good-natured joke that Livy still was a supporter of Pompey, the
enemy of Caesar. If this was a reproach at all, it was not serious. Livy remained
close enough to the imperial court to encourage the young prince Claudius to write
history. (The future emperor became a productive author: his histories of Rome,
Carthage and the Etruscans consisted of sixty-nine books.)
Until Livy's death, he wrote on his History of Rome from its foundation.
We do not know its publishing history, but the following is a plausible reconstruction:
| 26 BCE | 1-5 | Early history |
| 24 | 6-15 | Conquest of Italy |
| 19 | 16-30 | Wars against Carthage |
| 14 | 31-45 | Wars in the eastern Mediterranean |
| 11 | 46-55 | Destruction of Greece and Carthage |
| 1 BCE | 56-90 | The Gracchi, Marius, Cinna, and Sulla |
| 5 CE | 91-105 | Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar |
| 8 | 106-115 | Caesar becomes sole ruler |
| 10 | 116-120 | War of Mutina |
| 14 | 121-133 | Wars of the triumvirs and fall of Marc Antony |
| 17 | 134-142 | Reign of Augustus |
Jona Lendering, ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Livius Ancient History Website URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
Flaccus, C. Valerius. All that is known or that can be conjectured with plausibility
in regard to this writer may be comprehended in a very few words. From the expressions
of his friend Martial (i. 62, 77), we learn that he was a native of Padua; from
the exordium of his piece, we infer that it was addressed to Vespasian, and published
while Titus was achieving the subjugation of Judea; from a notice in Quintilian,
Dod well has drawn the conclusion that he must have died about A. D. 88. The lines
(v. 5),
"Phoebe, mone, si Cymaeae mihi conscia vatis
Stat casta cortina domo,"
whatever may be their import, are not in themselves sufficient to
prove, as Pius and Heinsius imagine, that he was a member of the sacred college
of the Quindecimviri; and the words Setinus Balbus, affixed to his name in certain
MSS., are much too doubtful in their origin and signification to serve as the
basis of any hypothesis, even if we were certain that they applied to the poet
himself, and not to some commentator on the text, or to some individual who may
at one time have possessed the codex which formed the archetype of a family.
The only work of Flaccus now extant is an unfinished heroic poem in
eight books, on the Argonautic expedition, in which he follows the general plan
and arrangement of Apollonius Rhodius, whose performance he in some passages literally
translates, while in others he contracts or expands his original, introduces new
characters, and on the whole devotes a larger portion of the action to the adventures
of the voyage before the arrival of the heroes at the dominions of Aetes. The
eighth book terminates abruptly, at the point where Medeia is urging Jason to
make her the companion of his homeward journey. The death of Absyrtus, and the
return of the Greeks, must have occupied at least three or four books more, but
whether these have been lost, or whether the author died before the completion
of his task, we cannot tell.
The Argonautica is one of those productions which are much praised
and little read. A kind but vague expression of regret upon the part of Quintilian
(x. 1), " Multum in Valerio Flacco nuper amisimus," has induced many
of the older to ascribe to Flaccus almost every conceivable merit; and, even in
modern times, Wagner has not hesitated to rank him next to Virgil among epic bards
of Rome. But it is difficult to discover any thing in his lays beyond decent mediocrity.
We may accord to him the praise of moderate talents, improved by industry and
learning, but we shall seek in vain for originality, or the higher attributes
of genius. He never startles us by any gross offence against taste, but he never
warms us by a brilliant thought, or charms us by a lofty flight of fancy. His
diction is for the most part pure, although strange words occasionally intrude
themselves, and common words are sometimes employed in an uncommon sense; his
general style is free from affectation, although there is a constant tendency
to harsh conciseness, which frequently renders the meaning obscure; his versification
is polished and harmonious, but the rhythm is not judiciously varied; his descriptions
are lively and vigorous, but his similes too often farfetched and unnatural. He
has attained to somewhat of the outward form, but to nothing of the in ward spirit,
of his great model, the Aeneid.
Valerius Flaccus seems to have been altogether unknown in the middle
ages, and to have been first brought to light by Poggio Brocciolini, who, while
attending the council of Constance in 1416, discovered in the monastery of St.
Gall a MS. containing the first three books, and a portion of the fourth. The
Editio Princeps was printed very incorrectly, from a good MS., at Bologna, by
Ugo Rugerius and Doninus Bertochus, fol. 1472; the second edition, which is much
more rare than the first, at Florence, by Sanctus Jacobus de Ripoli, 4to, without
date, but about 1431. The text was gradually improved by the collation of various
MSS. in the editions of Jo. Bapt. Pius, Bonon. fol. 1519; of Lud. Carrio, Antv.
8vo. 1565-1566; of Nicolaus Heinsius, Amst. 12mo. 1680; and above all in that
of Petrus Burmannus, Leid. 4to., 1724, which must be regarded as the most complete
which has yet appeared; although those of Harles, Altenb. 8vo. 1781; of Wagner,
Gotting. 8vo. 1805; and of Lemaire, Paris, 8vo. 1824, are more convenient for
ordinary purposes. The eighth book was published separately, with critical notes
and dissertations on some verses supposed to be spurious, by A. Weichert, Misn.
8vo. 1818.
We have metrical translations,--into English by Nicholas Whyte, 1565,
under the title " The story of Jason, how he gotte the golden flece, and
how he did begyle Media; out of Laten into Englische ;"--into French by A.
Dureau de Lamalle, Paris, 1811 ;--into Italian by M. A. Pindemonte, Verona, 1776
;--and into German by C. F. Wunderlich, Erfurt, 1805.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Macer Aemilius, of Verona, was senior to Ovid, and died in Asia, B. C. 16, three
years after Virgil, as we learn from the Eusebian Chronicle. He wrote a poem or
poems upon birds, snakes, and medicinal plants, in imitation, it would appear,
of the Theriaca of Nicander. His productions, of which not one word remains, are
thus commemorated in the Tristia:
"Saepe suas volucres legit mihi grandior aevo,
Quaeque necet serpens, quae juvet herba,
Macer.'
The work now extant, entitled "Aemilius Macer de Herbarum Virtutibus," belongs
to the middle ages. Of this piece there is an old translation, "Macer's Herbal,
practys'd by Doctor Lynacro. Translated out of Laten into Englysshe, which shewynge
theyr Operacyons and Vertues set in the margent of this Boke, to the entent you
myght know theyr vertues." There is no date; but it was printed by "Robt. Wyer,
dwellynge at the sygne of Saynt Johan evangelyste, in Seynt Martyns Parysshe,
in the byshop of Norwytche rentes, besyde Charynge Crosse."
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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